War Work of Young Women's Christian Association

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208 The Annals op the American Academy

all of them. Their work has been introduced into the countries one
by one until now this practical service is being rendered in every
country having military prisoners. The Association does not con-
duct relief work among the American prisoners, as that is the dis-
tinctive service of the American Red Cross, but it does continue to
place at their disposal all of its facilities in the way of recreational
sports, educational, social and religious work. Among the pris-
oners of other nationalities the Association is still called upon to do
a large amount of relief work as well as to conduct its regular pro-
gram of activities.

The Young Men's Christian Association is conducting its war
work at present on an annual budget of approximately fifty million
dollars, but in view of the many new demands and the inevitably
enlarged plans for its work, it will require for the coming year con-
siderably more than one hundred million dollars.

WAR WORK OF YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN
ASSOCIATION

By A. Estelle Paddock,
Publicity Director, War Work Council, Young Women's Christian Association.

A million and a half men were in the American Army a year
after this country entered the war. A million and a half women at
the same time were employed on war orders in factories. A million
other women were being speeded up in industries affected by the
war. As the size of the army increases, the number of women in
industry increases at the same rate. Each man who is withdrawn
from factory work must be replaced by a woman. This vast in-
dustrial army of women forms the second line of defense.

This sudden influx brings about a shifting and changing of the
women already wage-earners. They as well as the newcomers find
themselves in strange environments. Ten million women in this
country are now facing the wage-earners' problems.

The Young Women's Christian Association feels strongly its
responsibility toward all women affected by the war. Its fifty
years' experience in housing, feeding and recreation is brought to
bear upon the situation. The War Work Council, now numbering

Y. W. C. A. War Work 209

a hundred and thirty members, was called into existence in June,
1917. The members are chosen from the whole United States.
Its officers are: Mrs. James Stewart Cushman, chairman; Mrs.
John R. Mott and Mrs. William Adams Brown, vice-chairmen;
Mrs. Howard Morse, secretary, and Mrs. Henry P. Davison, treas-
urer. Among other members are: Mrs. Robert Lansing, Mrs.
Josephus Daniels, Mrs. Leonard Wood, Mrs. John French, Mrs.
Percy V. Pennybacker, Miss Mary E. Woolley, Mrs. Robert Bacon.

The Y. W. C. A. has been asked by the government through
the Woman's Branch of the Industrial Service Section of the Ord-
nance Department to organize constructive recreation for women
in the twenty-two federal industrial reservations. The same work
is also being extended to about one hundred cost plus plants now
taken over by the government. Miss Ernestine Friedman of the
Industrial Department of the Y. W. C. A. War Work Council is in
charge of the work. Social activities had been started by the first
of July in Bloomfield, New Jersey; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Bush
Terminal, Brooklyn; Carney's Point, New Jersey; Hopewell, Vir-
ginia; Long Island City, New York; Nashville, Tennessee; and
Williamsburg, Virginia. Thousands of girls will be employed in
some of these cantonments.

The women employed in the federal industrial reservations
include all types and ages. They are teachers, high school girls and
industrial girls : many foreigners are employed.

Life in a munition cantonment is necessarily abnormal. The
girls have no responsibilities outside their working hours. In ad-
dition, many of them must face the problems of leaving home, of
loneliness, of dangerous fatigue, of lack of suitable recreation and
the responsibility of family support. Under such conditions it be-
comes especially important to fill the leisure time with constructive,
continuous community recreation and service. Local industrial
service clubs are organized in each center and all the clubs are in-
cluded in the great industrial army. Model recreation buildings are
being put up. These contain a large living-room, smaller sitting-
rooms, living quarters for the secretaries, a gymnasium in one wing
and a cafeteria in the other. One executive secretary is appointed
to each center in addition to a recreation leader and often an assistant
secretary.

Women war workers in many cases will meet industrial as well

15

210 The Annals of the Amebican Academy

as personal problems. Changing industrial conditions may mean
in some places unemployment, unaccustomed tasks, irregular hours,
unhygienic conditions, speeding and rush work, overtime under
guise of patriotism and even the repeal of laws governing hours of
work and age of workers. Conditions like these invariably result
in unsettled standards, obliterating high ideals, letting down per-
sonal restraint and permitting loose social relationships. Wherever
bad industrial and social conditions prevail the labor turnover is
extensive, efficiency is diminished and output falls off.

To prevent this disaster, the Y. W. C. A. cooperates with em-
ployers and with girls to uphold high standards. Leaders with the
right knowledge of industrial problems are being trained in courses
conducted by local associations, industrial councils and at the Na-
tional Training School in New York City. During the summer the
Y. W. C. A. cooperated with Bryn Mawr College in a course for
industrial supervisors under the leadership of Dr. Susan Kingsbury.

The widespread education of the general public in industrial
standards is necessary to the protection of women, their safety,
their health and their moral welfare. The association through all
its many avenues impresses upon people in general that efficiency
is dependent upon the eight-hour day, one day's rest in seven,
minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, collective bargaining as
expressed in trade unionism and the abolition of night work for
women.

Besides these activities in ammunition factories, the Y. W. C. A.
carries on other enterprises for the well-being of employed women,
and other women affected by the war. About six hundred associa-
tion workers are employed on war work in the United States. They
are social workers, both white and colored, club and recreation lead-
ers, physical directors, dietitians, business women, household and
employment experts, educationalists and physicians. Association
members now number about four hundred thousand.

The Y. W. C. A. deals with the problem of industrial housing
in several ways. In many cities the local associations already have
buildings. Room registry bureaus have been established in Buffalo,
New York; Chester, Pennsylvania; Dayton, Ohio and other cities.
Any woman entering a strange city can apply at the local Y. W. C. A.
for assistance in finding room and board.

Emergency dormitories have been built by the War Work

Y. W. C. A. War Work 211

Council in Army City, Kansas, for girls employed in the Camp
Funston laundry, and at Deming, New Mexico, where Camp Cody is
situated. A model dormitory is being built in Charleston at the
request of Secretary Daniels for women employed in making uni-
forms. A similar house has been built in Camp Sherman Annex,
Chillicothe, Ohio. With slight modifications, these plans can be
utilized anywhere to house women comfortably and economically.
The Housing Committee of the Council, of which Mrs. John D.
Rockefeller, Jr., is chairman, after an exhaustive investigation of the
subject, presented to Secretary Baker memoranda in regard to the
housing of girls engaged in war industries.

Ninety-seven girls' club centers have been established in cities
and towns adjacent to camps. Eleven of these are for colored girls.
One hundred and thirty-five trained club and recreation leaders are
employed. Everything that is done by the Y. W. C. A. for white
women is done also for colored women. All their activities are under
the leadership of colored college women and social workers.

From the beginning the War Work Council planned to include
not only American women affected by the war, but because of the
pleas from France and Russia, the first budget contained an item
for work in Europe. Administrative, industrial and recreational
secretaries were sent to place their experience at the disposal of the
Russian women. In France the activities have fallen into two
general divisions — social work among American war relief workers
and cooperation with French women in work for their own people.
The object, in France as in Russia, is to cooperate with the women
of these countries developing such phases of social service for women
as will meet war conditions and at the same time become permanent
foundations for future work.

Hotel Petrograd has been opened in Paris, for American women
war relief workers, at 33 rue Caumartin. Another hostess house
has been opened at Tours. A room in each recreation hut for
nurses established at all the American base hospitals, is provided
with a Y. W. C. A. social worker. Three hostess houses to lodge
the American Signal Corps women have been organized at the re-
quest of army officials.

The Foyers des Alliees are recreation centers for French muni-
tion women workers, for women otherwise employed by the French
government, and for French women, established by the American
Y. W, C. A. at the request of the French Government.

212 The Annals of the Amebican Academy

The war activities of the Y. W. C. A. may be summarized as

follows:

In the United States

Establishing Club and Recreation Work for Girls, including a Patriotic League,
now numbering 400,000, white and colored.

Providing Emergency Housing for employed girls and women. Five centers
have been provided to date.

Establishing Hostess Houses in or near army and navy camps for women rela-
tives and friends of the army and navy. Sixty-one are in use. Twenty-five
others are authorized. Thirteen of these are for colored people.
Establishing Work in Colored Communities affected by the war, led by colored
college women and trained social workers.

Conducting a Bureau for Foreign-born Women, providing translations in
eighteen languages of needed bulletins, interpreters in army camps, training
for Polish women for reconstruction work in Poland, and a home service for
non-English speaking women.

Providing and Financing Social Leaders for women under the direction of the
War Department Commission on Training Camp Activities.
Establishing Room Registries and War Service Centers in cities employing girls
in war industries. The Government has asked the Y. W. C. A. for leaders in
twenty-two of its industrial cantonments.

Maintaining a Bureau of Social Morality which cooperates with the War
Department in furnishing a Corps of Lecturers on social standards in war
time; issues literature.

Publishing a War Work Bulletin and other educational literature for women
in war time.
Maintaining a Bureau of Volunteer Workers.

In France

Provides social workers, recreation leaders, physical directors and cafeteria
managers; foyers, and hostess houses.
Working with

American women in France (nineteen centers), Nurses, Signal corps
(women), other English-speaking women with the American
army
French women (at the request of the French Government) (nine

centers)
Working in munitions factories, in stores and in French war offices.
In Russia

Club, cafeteria and educational work in three centers for Russian women.